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CHAPTER 1 Abrief Overview of Seventeenth-Century Reformed Orthodox Federalism Richard C. Barcellos, Ph.D

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CHAPTER 1 Abrief Overview of Seventeenth-Century Reformed Orthodox Federalism Richard C. Barcellos, Ph.D CHAPTER 1 A Brief Overview of Seventeenth-Century Reformed Orthodox Federalism Richard C. Barcellos, Ph.D.* It is no secret that various seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox theologians articulated theology utilizing a federal or covenantal model. There are many sources (primary and secondary) available for the contemporary reader which amply display and discuss this model.1 We will examine briefly a few of the more important federal theologians of the seventeenth century to introduce readers to the world of seventeenth- *Richard C. Barcellos, Ph.D., is pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, CA (www.grbcav.org), and author of The Family Tree of Reformed Biblical Theology: Geerhardus Vos and John Owen–Their Methods of and Contributions to the Articulation of Redemptive History, Better than the Beginning: Creation in Biblical Perspective, and The Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace: More than a Memory. This chapter is a slightly revised section from the author’s The Family Tree of Reformed Biblical Theology and is used with permission. 1 For instance, for primary sources see Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man: Comprehending A Complete Body of Divinity, Two Volumes (Escondido, CA: The den Dulk Christian Foundation, Reprinted 1990); Nehemiah Coxe and John Owen, Covenant Theology From Adam to Christ (Owensboro, KY: RBAP, 2005); Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, Reprint edition of 1978); Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity: In Two Parts – Part I. the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace; Part II. An Exposition of the Ten Commandments (Edmonton, AB, Canada: Still Water Revival Books, Reprint edition of 1991); Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume Two (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1994); and for secondary works see A. T. B. McGowan, The Federal Theology of Thomas Boston (Edinburgh: Rutherford House, 1997); John Von Rohr, The Covenant of Grace in Puritan Thought (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986); John L. Girardeau, The Federal Theology: Its Import and Its Regulative Influence (Greenville, SC: Reformed Academic Press, 1994); Charles S. McCoy and J. Wayne Baker, Fountainhead of Federalism: Heinrich Bullinger and the Covenantal Tradition (Louisville: Westminster/John Know Press, 1991); Mark W. Karlberg, Covenant Theology in Reformed Perspective: Collected Essays and Book Reviews in Historical, Biblical, and Systematic Theology (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2000); Lyle D. Bierma, German Calvinism in the Confessional Age: The Covenant Theology of Caspar Olevianus (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996); Rowland S. Ward, God & Adam: Reformed Theology and The Creation Covenant – An Introduction to the Biblical Covenants – A Close Examination of the Covenant of Works (Wantirna, Australia: New Melbourne Press, 2003); Peter Golding, Covenant Theology: The Key of Theology in Reformed Thought and Tradition (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2004); Peter Lillback, The Binding of God: Calvin’s Role in the Development of Covenant Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001); Willem J. van Asselt, The Federal Theology of Johannes Cocceius (1603-1669) (Leiden, Boston, Koln: Brill, 2001); John Murray, “Covenant Theology” in Collected Writings, Volume Four (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1982), 216-40; Geerhardus Vos, “The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology” in RHBI, 234-67. century federal or covenant theology. This brief survey understands federal theology as a method and not as a distinct school.2 Federal or covenant theology did not begin in the seventeenth century. The seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox built upon the labors of their Reformed predecessors, who built upon the labors of others before them. Such theologians as Zwingli, Bullinger, Calvin, Ursinus, Olevianus, Rollock, Perkins, Ames, and Ball all played key roles in the early development of federal theology.3 We will look briefly at some of the key contributors to the development of federalism in the early and late seventeenth century, and even into the eighteenth century, to provide a wider context to introduce the reader to the thought-world of post-Reformation federalism. This should assist the reader as he continues through this volume. Knowing the historical- theological issues of the most productive era of the formulation of federal or covenant theology (among paedobaptists and Particular Baptists) will introduce readers to the ways and means utilized in such formulations and help understand some of the post- Reformation confessional statements and the biblical and theological issues at stake. William Perkins William Perkins, a late sixteenth-century English theologian, was a theology professor at Christ College, Cambridge.4 He is known by some as the father or chief architect of English Puritanism. He had several works of note, especially his The Art of Prophesying and A Golden Chaine. The Art of Prophesying was a hermeneutical and homiletical handbook which influenced English and American Puritanism.5 Those who influenced Perkins’ theology most were men like John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, Jerome Zanchi, Casper Olevianus, and Franciscus Junius.6 Perkins utilized Ramist logic while articulating his theology. Peter Ramus was a sixteenth-century French 2 Cf. Willem J. van Asselt, “The Fundamental Meaning of Theology: Archetypal and Ectypal Theology in Seventeenth-Century Reformed Thought,” Westminster Theological Journal 64 (2002): 323, where he notes, “This should warn us against any facile juxtaposition of federal-biblical theology with scholastic-dogmatic theology…” ‘This’ in context refers to the fact that many late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformed theologians utilized Junius’ classification of archetypal and ectypal knowledge. Van Asselt claims that this is true of continental Reformed theologians as well as some English Puritans. John Owen makes such distinctions in his Biblical Theology (Pittsburgh: Soli Deo Gloria, 1994). (Cf. Chapter 8 of my The Family Tree of Reformed Biblical Theology, Owen, Biblical Theology, Chapter 3 Book I, and Sebastian Rehnman, Divine Discourse: The Theological Methodology of John Owen (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 57-71 for an extended discussion as it relates to Owen.). Once again, this is further evidence that Reformed scholasticism was a complex method and not a static system of theology. Reformed orthodox theologians could be and were often both scholastic and federal. 3 For a well-referenced treatment of the history of federal theology in the post-Reformation era see Ward, God & Adam. Cf. also Golding, Covenant Theology, 13-66. 4 Donald K. McKim, “Perkins, William (1558-1602)” in Donald K. McKim, editor, Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith (Louisville and Edinburgh: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), 274-75. 5 Donald K. McKim, “Perkins, Williams (1558-1602)” in Donald K. McKim, editor, Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 815. 6 McKim, “Perkins” in McKim, editor, DMBI, 815. logician and philosopher who simplified Aristotelianism and developed a system of analysis that was utilized by the Cambridge Puritans and passed on to their heirs. Ramism analyzed discourse by defining and dividing. Axioms were divided into two parts or dichotomies. Divisions could be subdivided down to their smallest units. As an effect of humanism in Ramist logic, there was an emphasis on practicality. This contribution of Ramism in Puritanism created the tendency in Puritan exegesis of Scripture to create sermons under two main considerations–exposition/doctrine and use. 7 William Ames William Ames, a student of Perkins at Christ College, Cambridge, became professor of theology at the University of Franeker, the Netherlands in 1622. Ames’ major work was his The Marrow of Theology.8 This work was very influential among various groups of Protestants in the seventeenth century, including Baptists. It follows Perkins’ utilization of Ramist logic in the articulation of theology. Ames has been called the “chief architect of the federal theology.”9 Ames was Johannes Cocceius’ (see below) theology professor and could have been the source behind two of his contributions to federalism–(1) a mediating position on the relation between the ordo salutis and the historia salutis and (2) the concept of a progressive abrogation of the covenant of works.10 Commenting on Ames’ teaching on the relation between the ordo and historia salutis, van Vliet says, “The horizontal movement and the vertical “strikes” are continually in a state of intersection; predestination and covenant meet in unity.”11 In his discussion “The Administration of the Covenant of Grace before the Coming of Christ” Ames combines aspects of the ordo salutis with aspects of the historia salutis. He does this in the three major Old Testament redemptive-historical epochs: from Adam to Abraham,12 from Abraham to Moses,13 and from Moses to Christ.14 In each redemptive-historical epoch, Ames shows how the stages of the ordo salutis were exemplified or as Ames says, “adumbrated.”15 Ames held to what van Vliet calls “a form of [the progressive] abrogation of the covenant of works.”16 Commenting on the New Covenant, Ames says: 7 Cf. McKim, “Perkins” in DMBI, 816 and McKim, “Ramus, Peter (1515-1572)” in ERF, 314. 8 William Ames, The Marrow of Theology (Durham, NC: The Labyrinth Press, 1983). 9 Jan van Vliet, “Decretal Theology and the Development of
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